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Justanormalguy wrote:

kwanzaabot wrote:So, is there any particular reason why they keep making Bumblebee unable to speak? In the first Bay movie, it kind of made sense (and then he speaks at the end of the movie... only to be mute again in the second one. WTF), but since then, they just keep doing it. Over and over and over again.

The latest offender being Fall of Cybertron. Hell, they could've just not used him at all (since he's in the game for all of two seconds) and saved themselves a bunch of time.

Is Bumblebee's voice actor just that expensive?

I believe they do that so kids who only have seen the movies know that that's Bumblebee, I believe that they were going to add Ironhide, but they didn't want to include him so the children wouldn't get confused.

Yep. Bulkhead was originally named Ironhide until they found that the character they were writing suited Bulk more. Then they gave the excuse that Ironhide died in DOTM and didn't want to confuse the kiddies. They can't make up their minds.

PrymeStriker wrote:Yep. Bulkhead was originally named Ironhide until they found that the character they were writing suited Bulk more. Then they gave the excuse that Ironhide died in DOTM and didn't want to confuse the kiddies. They can't make up their minds.

They can have multiple reasons, you know. "Ended up more like Bulkhead" and "Might confuse new viewers" do not have to be mutually exclusive.

And we need to talk about something because everyone in here is so very biased. At this point, we've all gotten use to the idea of this franchise having numerous continuities (Which is often brought up in the fiction itself) and the idea of characters changing voice, appearance, and personality between lines. But do you think someone who just got into the line from the movies might find it a little bit massively confusing? I know for a fact that's what happens because I've seen it first hand numerous times. They don't think kids are idiots, they know people will get confused.

romeostarkiller wrote:Maybe it was just to make him different somehow? like being more of an underdog than he already was because he cant speak?

The one and only reason, as Orci and Kurtzman said in the ROTF DVD commentary, is that they liked the idea of Bee speaking through the radio. Basically, it's just a creative conceit on the part of the screenwriters. Which might be partly the reason Soundwave is also mute in the Prime series, seeing as they're producers of the show.

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:

romeostarkiller wrote:Maybe it was just to make him different somehow? like being more of an underdog than he already was because he cant speak?

The one and only reason, as Orci and Kurtzman said in the ROTF DVD commentary, is that they liked the idea of Bee speaking through the radio. Basically, it's just a creative conceit on the part of the screenwriters. Which might be partly the reason Soundwave is also mute in the Prime series, seeing as they're producers of the show.

In Soundwave's case, it's probably more along the lines that being silent makes him much creepier. And when he does speak, he's through distorted clips of something someone else said, like in Predator.

Shadowman wrote:

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:

romeostarkiller wrote:Maybe it was just to make him different somehow? like being more of an underdog than he already was because he cant speak?

The one and only reason, as Orci and Kurtzman said in the ROTF DVD commentary, is that they liked the idea of Bee speaking through the radio. Basically, it's just a creative conceit on the part of the screenwriters. Which might be partly the reason Soundwave is also mute in the Prime series, seeing as they're producers of the show.

In Soundwave's case, it's probably more along the lines that being silent makes him much creepier. And when he does speak, he's through distorted clips of something someone else said, like in Predator.

Good point. Personally, I think the whole mute thing works better for Soundwave than Bee. Like you mentioned, it does make he creepier, replaying clips of others. Goes very well with the faceless head design, too.

With Bee, I liked him better as the chatterbox in WFC and Animated.

Shadowman wrote:

PrymeStriker wrote:Yep. Bulkhead was originally named Ironhide until they found that the character they were writing suited Bulk more. Then they gave the excuse that Ironhide died in DOTM and didn't want to confuse the kiddies. They can't make up their minds.

They can have multiple reasons, you know. "Ended up more like Bulkhead" and "Might confuse new viewers" do not have to be mutually exclusive.

And we need to talk about something because everyone in here is so very biased. At this point, we've all gotten use to the idea of this franchise having numerous continuities (Which is often brought up in the fiction itself) and the idea of characters changing voice, appearance, and personality between lines. But do you think someone who just got into the line from the movies might find it a little bit massively confusing? I know for a fact that's what happens because I've seen it first hand numerous times. They don't think kids are idiots, they know people will get confused.

My 13-year-old neighbor saw my FoC Shockwave on my shelf and instantly spotted him. Then he said: "Why does he have wings? Why isn't he big and bulky? Where's the drilly thing? This Shockwave sucks."

But that's only because he started Transformers with DOTM. He hasn't really seen ROTF or Movie 1, or anything else, really.

Kids can get confused, I understand, but they just further "confuse" them when we have a living Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, and Arcee when they were all killed in the movies.

Because he doesn't have anything nice to say.

I have a story to add.
A few years ago I wore Bumblebee (G1 version) t-shirt to a local high school baseball. All of the local teenagers basically recognize in as Transformers shirt and more specifically they recognized Bumblebee. All of them were born after the G1 cartoon, so they only television exposure to Bumblebee would have to the movie (or maybe Animated). Heck, noone even wondered why there was a Volkswagon beetle on the shirt. So the youth of small town America knows Bumblebee. Then again, most version of Bumblebee are yellow.

hmmm...
I've thought of this as well..., my idea is going to sound off the wall...

I think Hasbro does this so kids out there who are not considered "perfect" by society, are mute or handicap in any way can relate to bumblebee and be like "he's mute and he kicks ass at the same time", remember that Hasbro does support childrens hospitals, and I'm sure a lot of kids out there can relate... and remember back in the G1 cartoon days they had that one kid in a wheelchair!

just my idea

Grimlock Shakur wrote:hmmm...
I've thought of this as well..., my idea is going to sound off the wall...

I think Hasbro does this so kids out there who are not considered "perfect" by society, are mute or handicap in any way can relate to bumblebee and be like "he's mute and he kicks ass at the same time", remember that Hasbro does support childrens hospitals, and I'm sure a lot of kids out there can relate... and remember back in the G1 cartoon days they had that one kid in a wheelchair!

just my idea

Orci and Kurtzman, the first two to write Bumblebee as mute, wrote him that way because they liked the idea of a character speaking through the radio. Hasbro did it again in Prime, because, as I explained, people who aren't long-time TF fans can be easily confused regarding sudden and massive change in character design and personality.